Some new knives in my collection (pic heavy)

[Moin.]

Friends,
Here is my contribution to this thread. It may be known to you but still this particular one is my only knife worthy of talking about.
Laguiole
A hand forged french traditional knife made in a village named Laguiole in southern France. Originally they were used by the farmers for day to day use. There has never been any patent protection of the Laguiole knives and as a matter of fact the market is flooded with cheap fake Laguioles (mostly made in Pakistan) these days.
Today there are only a few artisans making these knives traditionally in Aubrac region of France.

DSCF3990 (copie).JPG

The handle is made of Amourette wood (or snakewood) which is considered to be the rarest wood on earth. I was told that it is the only wood which does not float on water. I am yet to see for myself...
The engravings are are all hand made.
In a nutshell, I find it to be a very beautiful object to carry on one's self.

Here in France, one says that 'if one offers you a Laguiole, you should give him a cent/coin so that the friendship does not cut off'.

Enjoy!
tirpassion

I am sorry, the pictures are too small. I o not know how to upload better quality images

Thanks so much for sharing these, wish you could post bigger pictures.....That's a beautiful beautiful blade and like you mentioned rare. There is always a certain charm to local handmade produce.

Regards
Moin.

[tirpassion]

Thanks friends,
I have been able to upload some better photos for you all. Please see the earlier post.
Enjoy!
tirpassion

[Rajat]

How workable is Micarta ? Is it possible to stipple/hatch micarta like G10 for better traction ?

It comes in slabs / sheets and can be worked upon the same as G-10 or wood etc. One may use wood working tools on it to design any handle etc. It can be stippled or checkered or routered if needed.

One feedback that Slingshot gave me is the Micarta tends to get dirty very soon, and he uses his blades in his outdoor/camping trips etc. How easy is Micarta to clean and maintain.

To clean it one may just wash it and it is not too difficult to maintain. It has a tendency to get stained and develops a nice patina after some use.

If Micarta is that bad a material how come top of the line custom knife makers like Chris Reeves uses Micarta on combat knives such as the Green Beret...

It is not a bad material and in fact it is one of the most used materials for knife handles. That it is a bad material is the wrong conclusion. We were specifically discussing the Micarta handles made by Becker and the observations were just made with reference to it.

Micarta is just cloth ( Linen, canvas etc ) impregnated with resin and then these layers of cloth are then compressed together in a solid slab. Possibly there are different types of resins involved, different ways to finish these, the design and handle shape are the other factors that affect the grip.

So lets not be too harsh on Micarta

[Rajat]

Hi tirpassion,

Thanks for sharing the pictures and details of your Laguiole with us. It is indeed a nice knife and worthy of mention.

[TC]

Tirpassion, you have a truly wonderful knife. Thanks for sharing. Since I take keen interest in traditional knives and swords and histories/folklores associated with them your post enriched me.

Thank you once again.



TC

[Moin.]

Finally managed to acquire the third of the three blades that I've always lusted after 1) The Gerber Applegate Fairbarn Folder 2) The Benchmade Griptilian 3) The Sypderco Military.

Several reviews of the Military are availble on the internet, so instead of repeating what is availble I will mention a few of my observations. For those not familiar with the Military here's Nutfancy's review of the blade.

[youtube][/youtube]


This is a large tactical/multiutility blade with a nice thick 4 inch S30V Shaving sharp blade. Handle is textured G10 with very nice traction and digital camoflague pattern on the scales.



With some other hotties, the Gerber Applegate, Benchmade Griptilian and the smaller cousin the Spyderco Tenacious.



All in the family, hotter than the lineup for the next kingfisher calendar girl



And ofcourse the quit essential " OUT OF THE BOX HAIRY LEGS-SHAVING SHARP TEST"

[Moin.]

The first thing I noted was the lack of full steel liners inside the G10 Slabs, WTF.. But then this help keep the knife very light at 4 Oz or about 115 gms. Also makes the knife top/blade heavy i.e much faster for the blade to deploy.The weight is barely noticeble in the pocket and would with it's slim profile be very convinient for EDC use (The width of the folder is 3/4th that of the similar sized Gerber Applegate). The blade is large enough for most tasks including SD should God forbid the need ever arises. My personal preference though would be for full steel liners as it makes the knife feel solid. NOt sure how the G10 slabs would take heavy military abuse, but then polymer technology has advanced and even pistols like the Glocks are made of these polymers/plastics !!!

My photographic skills are poor and crappy camera, but you should get the idea from the pics below.









Here's what i prefer as seen in the superb Gerber Applegate Folder, full steel liners





P.S: That lanyard's no 550 paracord. it's a woodland Olive drab shoe lace, new ofcourse

[Moin.]

Large 4 inch S30V Blade, (Carbon content of 1.45 compared to the about 1 on the 1095 of the Kabars.

Here's a nice link for those wanting to know more about S30V) It's a super exotic metallurgical concoction used by in all premium blades and extensivley by Knife makers such as Chris Reeves...

http://www.spyderco.com/edge-u-cation/index.php?item=3

http://www.spyderco.com/edge-u-cation/steel.php

Here's the best part, the large 4 inch flat ground S30V Blade.



The Blade is about 4mm thick ( thick for a folder !!) and tapers down to a fine point





Like all Spyderco's, this blade has a very large 1.5cm hole for quick deployment even with gloves on ( for US Militray ofcourse ) poor indian soldiers survive just with their grits and guts alone !!!!

[Moin.]

Nice Jimping on both the sides of the choil, excellent for choking up on the blade for closeup work..







Here's a bit of flaw in the design, athough the choil has a generous amount of jimping all the way, about 1/2 of it is actually useful, note the G10 extends beyond the steel by about a little more than a mm. Think can be resolved by filing/sanding off the excess G10. The full jimping will then be utilised to it's full extent.





This is what I thought was the biggest problem with the knife in general, take a close look at the liner lock. It is fairly thin for such a large and thick blade(is titanium though with very nice jimping for added traction !!!).Why oh why in a 100$ + folder could the bas@#$% not put in an axis lock. Works beautifully on by BM Grippie.
Here's what an axis lock is for those not familiar
http://www.equipped.com/pop_up_axis_lock.htm
The thickness of the liner is about an mm compared to about 4mm blade thickness. The liner does not even move to the centre of the blade when the blade is deployed. Just image a scary sharp 4 inch blade closing on your fingers if the lock fails, the flat ground blade will surely cut you down to the bone if this ever happens. This is addressed beautifully in the Gerber Applegate Folder. See pics below, the liner rests almost at the edge of the blade.Scary



The liner even on the much much cheaper Spyderco Tenacious (centre) is thicker and rests on the centre of the blade on being deployed.

[Moin.]

The other noticable flaw if I may say so is the clip is mounted in the pivot side. The disadvantages in this is difficult to deploy the blade immediately on pulling out of pant pockets. Try carrying a folder tip up vs carrying it tip down and notice the difference. Also when the clip is mounted on the pivot side the folder sits very high and wide in the jeans pocket compared to tip up. makes the folder more noticeable. I personally dislike clips as they dig into the hands, snag in pant pockets and are only useful if you wear jeans to work that too with the shirt out. I wear formal trousers to work and carry all my folders in the mobile pockets sticthed in the main trouser pockets. I prefer taking out the clip and having a small lanyard, much faster to pull out the knife from the pant pockets. (just a personal opinion !!!).



That basically sums up what I see in the blade. It's a very nice no nonsense folder, great for EDC inspite of it's large blade size. Scary razor sharp right out of the box, very nicely textured G10 scales with superb traction. Proven pedigree of the Spyderco Brand. Out and out a premium top of the line folder from Spyderco. Has it's postive's and negatives, but so does each and every knife. Like we have our own inadequacies and imperfections and this is what makes us humans, so do knives I guess, takes time to get to know each of them, improve and modify them to suit your purpose.This is definately not desitined like the few others for the storage box, always carry a few folders on person, the tiny gerber on the car keychain, the Vic Bundeshwehr sometimes, sometimes Marthandan's Kiridashi, sometimes the Spyderco Tenacious. This is a sure user !!!

Hope you enjoyed reading this.

Parting shot, repost of the pic above, the blade in all it's glory

[Moin.]

And yes, got it at a price much much lower than knife centre usings Choombak's offer to buy from knife forums. Thank you Amar.

Regards
Moin.

[choombak]

Liner lock done by Spyderco are reasonably good so don't worry too much about the thinness - I am sure they have tested it rigorously. Full steel liners are not required as the amount of pressure/force required to damage the handles can never be applied with hands.

Just remember not to wiggle the knife sideways ever - if you do that you are abusing the knife, you'd better get a pry bar.

The photos are great, and the military is a fantastic knife.

[choombak]

BTW, I disassembled and reassembled the benchmade grip for cleaning and lubing and it is the finest piece of engineering I'd say. I am impressed with the precision and tolerances of the components as well as the simplicity of the axis locking mechanism.

[Moin.]

BTW, I disassembled and reassembled the benchmade grip for cleaning and lubing and it is the finest piece of engineering I'd say. I am impressed with the precision and tolerances of the components as well as the simplicity of the axis locking mechanism.

Wohhooo, a BM StripTease Hope you have taken some pics. I know the BM's deploy butter smooth. Have you considered polishing the Brass washers with say 1500-2000 grit emery paper. I've read some mods done on BM's and Sypdies and the blade deployment is made smoother by polishing the brass washers.

Regards
Moin.

[jayanta mukherjee]

Nice blade you got there Moin. One of my favourite blades also but won't buy this one this year. Have made quite a number of purchases lately and will reserve it till next year.
BTW forgot to say an interesting review there.
Cheers
Jayanta